Duncan MacKillop's

"Everything you wanted to know about map folding"

For those of you that missed the practical demonstration of
chart folding,
I'll try and describe the method here, so that everybody can have
a go.

Tips..
Practice on a sheet of A4 first (stuff on one side, blank on the
other),
this will help you avoid making a cock-up with the real thing.

Buy a nice shiny new chart from AFE so that you don't get your
old and new
folds mixed up. Besides which, they were good enough to produce
the natty
little badges, so we should make it worth their while!

Break the back of all the folds, i.e. make the fold one way and
then turn
the sheet over and make it the other way, this helps the finished
chart to
lie flatter.
Finish each fold by running along it with a lump of plastic, this
makes a
fold a fold, not a bend.

Give yourself plenty of room on a nice big table and get a pal to
help you
keep the folds from going wonky.

Be prepared to modify the instructions for charts that are taller
than they
are wide, Scottish chart for example.

If you never want to look at the key panel across the bottom of
the chart,
simply fold it back out of the way and treat the remaining area
as per the
following instructions.

If you get it right you will end up with three horizontal and
seven vertical
folds.

Right, if you're ready here we go.

Fold 1. with the chart printed side down, fold the two longest
edges of the
chart together so that you get a nice fold running east west
along the
middle.

Fold 2 & 3. Open out the chart and fold the lower edge up to
the centre
fold, repeat for the top edge.

You should now have three horizontal folds running east west
across the
chart. (If you haven't, give up and go down the pub!)

Fold 4, 5 & 6. Open out the chart and repeat the previous
process, only this
time make the folds north south.

You should now have three horizontal and three vertical folds
dividing the
chart up into sixteen little squares. (Fun isn't it) All of the
remaining
folds will be north south.

Fold 7. Open out the chart printed side down and take the
lefthand edge and
position it on the first fold in from the righthand side. Take a
soft pencil
and write "not this one dummy" along the resulting fold
(You'll see why
next).

Fold 8. Open out the chart again and repeat step seven again only
this time
from the other end. By writing along the previous fold it will
hopefully
stop you making fold 8 in the wrong place! Remember to fold the
edge to the
FIRST fold at the other end.

You should now have five vertical and three horizontal folds, if
not, the
pub option will apply.

Fold 9 & 10. Open out the chart and fold the lefthand edge in
to the first
fold on the lefthand side. Repeat for the righthand edge to the
first fold
on the righthand side.

You should now have completed all seven vertical and three
horizontal folds
and all the vertical holds will be the same distance apart. No?
Pub!

Final assembly. Open the chart out flat on the table printed side
down and
fold the top and bottom segments into the middle. Turn the chart
over with
the open edges away from you. Starting with the top fold, make
the first
fold away from you. Next fold towards you, next away and so on
until you
have a series of concertina folds.

Open the folds out between the second and third peaks of the
concertina,
turn it through 90 degrees and fold the top away from you.

The job is now finished (yipeee). To use, flip the chart open so
that there
is an equal number of concertinas each side and page left and
right through
the concertinas to see the centre portion of the chart. To see
the upper and
lower portions of the chart, flip it over towards you and page
left and
right through the concertinas.

If all this is far too confusing for you, e-mail me with your
postal address
and I will send you a pre-folded A4 sheet that shows how it all
goes
together.